Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 01/29/2012

Support Women Artists Sunday: Seeker Lover Keeper

Seeker Lover Keeper

There an awful lot of acoustic bands that come around these days. Oftentimes it’s hard to differentiate between them (largely because there’s a factory somewhere that makes most of them). But don’t lose faith! Sometimes good ones come along. They have brilliant lyrics and are incredibly heartfelt. Speaking of good acoustic bands, how bout that Seeker Lover Keeper!

There’s a very bizarre phenomena that happens in the American music scene where a lot of times, bands that have enormous success in other countries fail to even get mentioned in any conversations. That’s why you haven’t heard of Seeker Lover Keeper despite their debut album going gold over in Australia (and Australia’s developed a great music scene! Angus & Julia Stone, The Temper Trap, Cut Copy just to name…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 01/22/2012

Support Women Artists Sunday: Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

After 20 years in the music biz, self-described “Little Folksinger” Ani DiFranco is still technically little, although her influence on fellow musicians, activists, and indie-minded people the world over has been huge. She still proudly identifies as a folksinger, too, but her understanding of that term has always been far more expansive than a bin at the record store or a category on iTunes, with ample room for soul, funk, jazz, electronic music, spoken word, and a marching band or two. Over the course of more than 20 albums, including the live double CD Living in Clip (1997) and the two-disc career retrospective Canon (2007), as well as the latest one, ¿Which Side are You On? (2012), Ani has never stopped evolving, experimenting, testing the limits of what can…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 12/11/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Birdy

Birdy

You wanna feel like you’ve done absolutely nothing with your life? Just look at what the amazingly talented Birdy has done already. Birdy, at the age of 15, has just released her first studio album. Yeah, at fifteen. She can’t drive yet, but she can sing and cover songs like its her job. If you’re in the UK you’ve heard of her, but for everyone else, here’s a profile.

Jasmine Van den Bogaerde, also known by her stage name Birdy, (born 15 May 1996) is an English musician known for winning the music competition Open Mic UK in 2008, at the age of 12. Her version of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” was released in January 2011, peaking inside the top twenty of the UK Singles Chart and in some European territories.…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 11/13/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Polica

Polica

CMJ was without a doubt, the greatest week of my life. If you ever have an opportunity to go to a festival such as CMJ or SXSW which have concerts all the time over a one week period, with all sorts of new acts, DO IT. I got to see previously featured Dum Dum Girls (sounded great but were a bit lackluster live to be honest) and An Horse (totally kickass) in this week of music explosion. The best part of CMJ is finding those under the radar bands that sound amazing. Hence I present Polica.

Polica were the first warmup for Dum Dum Girls and played a fantastic little set (I snagged the setlist as to be expected). Polica has a band composition like none I’ve seen before. Polica is…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Emily A on 10/30/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Tati Kalveks

Tati Kalveks

Tati Kalveks is an 18-year -old girl from London who, as she describes it, is producing some beautifully poignant and funny songs. Her topics spread over a whole array ­of things, from female grooming habits to her love of gingers.

In one of her greatest songs, “Because I’ve Got Breasts“ (or ‘B.I.G. Breasts’ for short) she sarcastically celebrates the fact that everyone in her life is more than happy with her to enter into an unstable career as a musician because one day she is going to marry a rich wealthy man. Why? Because she’s got breasts, of course.

Says Tati about the song: “This one churned itself out of a song about not getting enough done, after enough people (family) pointed out to me that work is way overrated when I…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 10/23/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Austra

Austra

If you’ve ever heard an Austra song, you would know it. Few bands in my repertoire have such a unique and distinctive style. Even their covers of rock out songs like The Strokes’s Alone Together are spun into truly original arrangements that capture the dark synth essence that is Austra. Austra was one of the biggest buzz bands at SXSW this year and have even started touring with the likes of the wonderfully talented James Blake. I had the pleasure of seeing Austra back in Cleveland with Cold Cave which was quite the spectacular spectacle. Austra manages to be dancey while maintaining a creepy allure that leaves the listener in a dazed state of desire for more.

The band consists of Katie Stelmanis (lead vocals) who sounds like a weird vocal…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Brian C on 10/9/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Blair

Blair

Alright time for super indie. The near impossible to find, but incredibly talented Blair!
You know how when you go to a concert you kind of roll your eyes when the warm up band comes out that you’ve never heard before? If you find a gem, your concert experience is multiplied by about 10000 but if they’re a dud, it really puts a damper on your evening. This year I saw Say Hi when they came to Cleveland. Blair opened up for him and wow were they talented. She has just that right kind of voice that’s soothing to listen to. Blair’s style is kind of pop but while teetering on the edge of becoming folk. I can’t recommend Blair’s first album Die Young highly enough, it’s a go to relaxation…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 10/2/2011

Support Women Artists Sunday: Clare Maguire

Clare Maguire

Clare Maguire (born 1987 in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom) is an English singer, songwriter signed to Polydor Records.

Maguire comes from a large musical Irish family and started singing and writing music from the age of 7. She was announced on the 3 January 2011 as 5th place in the BBC Sound of 2011 list of the top 15 most promising new artists. Clare was also singled out as one of MTV’s Brand New: For 2011 Acts. Her voice has been compared to Annie Lennox and Stevie Nicks.

Maguire signed a recording contract with Polydor Records in 2008 and since then has been working on her debut album ‘Light After Dark’ with producer Fraser T. Smith, who has previously worked with Kylie Minogue and Adele. ‘Light After Dark‘ comes out 28th…

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